On Jan. 23, 1943, my uncle, Frank Ebner Gartz, (photo in uniform, above) reported to the draft board in Chicago to start his training for WWII. So began the correspondence between him and family & friends, comprising almost 300 letters going both ways. I’m posting many of these World War II letters, each on or near the 70th anniversary of its writing. To start with his induction, click HERE.

This blog began in Nov., 2010, when I posted a century-old love note from Josef Gärtz, my paternal grandfather, to Lisi (Elisabetha) Ebner, my paternal grandmother, and follows their bold decision to strike out for America.

My mom and dad were writers too, recording their lives in diaries and letters from the 1920s-the 1990s. Historical, sweet, joyful, and sad, all that life promises-- and takes away--are recorded here as it happened. It's an ongoing saga of the 20th century. To start at the very beginning, please click HERE.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

An Alien Made Manifest

Every ship entering the port of New York was required to provide customs officers with comprehensive details of its cargo, passengers, and crew. The "List or Manifest of Alien Passengers" (left) is a snapshot of a single moment--a century the the past. It captures salient details of the 800 or so people who arrived on the same ship,
just as they were embarking on their wholly unknown future in a foreign land--the U.S.A.

The manifest allows us to look back upon our ancestors through the eyes of one of the first officials to welcome (and scrutinize) them as they stood before the officer, undoubtedly with heart in throat, wondering if anything they said might provide an excuse to send them back whence they came.

Whoever looked at my grandmother, Lisi, when she arrived on the evening of September 26th, 1911, began filling in the twenty-nine columns on line 19 of the manifest with the details that the U.S. wanted to know about this "alien" prior to her entry into this country.

Line 19 of manifest for the steamer, Kaiser Wilhelm II

Columns 1and 2 -- her full name: Ebner, Erzsebeth (see detail, above)

Never mind what her real name was. They took the Hungarian equivalent, Erzsebeth, from her passport/Dienstbuch [for details of this dual-purpose document, see 6/14 post, When a Resume Worked as a Passport)

The mistaken transcription

Years later, when all this information was transcribed into a searchable database, her name was mistakenly copied as “Ebnor” with an “o” and Erzebeth was miscopied as “Erssebeth,” making my search just a tad more difficult. But because of the detailed information Lisi had written on the postcard of her ship (see last post), I found it. The U.S. wanted further bureaucratic information:

ColumnQuestionLisi's answers
3 Age 24
4 Gender F
5 Married/single Single
6 occupation Cook
7 Able to read/write yes/yes
8 Nationality Hungary
9 Race/people German
10 Last Permanent
Residence Hungary, N[agy] Apold [Hungarian for Grosspold]
11 Nearest relative
In home country Samuel Ebner [father]
12 Final Destination Cleveland, OhioCompose
Aha! Question #12, the last question on the first page of the two-page manifest, is how I discovered that Lisi didn’t go directly to Chicago to meet my grandfather. Instead her first stop was Cleveland, where her stepsister, Maria Wagner, lived. I hadn’t known this before.

The questions continued on the second page, allowing us to stand in the interrogator’s place, and imagine how Lisi appeared to him/her:

I had seen that name before, and this piece of unknown information on the manifest was a revelation that connected Lisi's arrival to an incident forty years later.

A family of documentarians brings life full circle

I had never met the Wagner family--nor do I recall hearing about them--until I read my father's 1950 diary. During one of his many business trips out of state, he traveled to Ohio and made a side excursion to visit the Wagner family in Cleveland. By 1950 they had grown sons, owned a restaurant where the sons and father switched off to work night and day, and had many American luxuries. Another immigrant family that had fulfilled the American dream. Details to come.

Meantime, Lisi successfully passed inspection, both health and moral (no polygamy or anarchism!). Josef will have to wait a few more weeks to see his darling, but she let him know she had arrived safely.
Coming up: the postcard of New York Lisi sent to him and how a seemingly unimportant business card turned out to be a key clue as to how they connected in Chicago.

10 comments:

It was closer to very dark brown. I have a hank of a long braid which I'm sure was hers (lots of folks saved hair in the past -- maybe you have some in your collection). So I think the Ellis Island folks were moving and observing quickly--first impressions. So glad you're following the story.

Wonderful story, Linda! Reminded me when I first came to this country the questions were different but just as "unskillful" as the Buddhists say. They wanted to know if I "intended to sell pornographic pictures and if I was a member of the Communist Party." Who would answer with Yes? And this was in 1952. Treasure your material, it is irreplaceable!

Stay tuned, Lynn. I know Lisi was very close to her step-sisters, with whom she was raised from the age of about 12, when her father remarried. See Blended Family BreakthroughSince Cleveland was on the way to Chicago, I suppose she figured this might be the last chance to see her stepsister, Maria, for a while. She was right. Coming up: How she and Josef connected, married, and the work that precluded travel!

Hi Kathy -- each little scrap I find adds to the story. I also apologize to anyone who tries to click on the link I put in my previous comment "Blended family Breakthrough." It doesn't work -- and I don't know what I did wrong. But anyone can just look for for that blog post by entering it into the "search this blog" --upper right. Thanks for dropping by!

I've just discovered your blog - this is so fun! It's wonderful that your grandparents saved so much that helps you to tell their story. To tell my husband's grandparents stories (at http://jewishgenealogyjourney.blogspot.com/) I mostly started with my in-laws' memories, a few photographs and U.S. research (so far).

About Family Archaeologist

Linda is digging through a century of letters, diaries, and artifacts to piece together her family's life as it was lived and reported on at the time. She's sharing her discoveries on this blog, hoping others find resonance with their own families -- and the human experience. A writer and television producer, she is turning her search and discoveries into a memoir.